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    <h1>Custom export filters</h1>

    <p>JabRef allows you to define and
    use your own export filters, in the same way as the standard
    export filters are defined. An export filter is defined by one
    or more <i>layout files</i>, which with the help of a
    collection of built-in formatter routines specify the format of
    the exported files. Your layout files must be prepared in a
    text editor outside of JabRef.</p>

    <h2>Adding a custom export filter</h2>

    <p>The only requirement for
    a valid export filter is the existence of a file with the
    extension <b>.layout</b>. To add a new custom export filter,
    open the dialog box <b>Options -&gt; Manage custom exports</b>,
    and click <b>Add new</b>. A new dialog box will appear,
    allowing you to specify a name for the export filter (which
    will appear as one of the choices in the File type dropdown
    menu of the file dialog when you use the <b>File -&gt;
    Export</b> menu choice in the JabRef window), the path to the
    <b>.layout</b> file, and the preferred file extension for the
    export filter (which will be the suggested extension in the
    file dialog when you use the export filter).</p>

    <h2>Creating the export filter</h2>

    <p>To see examples of how export filters are made, look for
    the package containing the layout files for the standard
    export filters on our download page.</p>

    <h3>Layout files</h3>

    <p>Let us assume that we are creating an HTML export filter. 
     While the export filter only needs to consist of a single
    <b>.layout</b> file, which in this case could be called
    <i>html.layout</i>, you may also want to add two files called
    <i>html.begin.layout</i> and <i>html.end.layout</i>. The former
    contains the header part of the output, and the latter the
    footer part. JabRef will look for these two files whenever the
    export filter is used, and if found, either of these will be
    copied verbatim to the output before or after the individual
    entries are written.</p>

    <p>Note that these files must reside in the same directory as
    <i>html.layout</i>, and must be named by inserting
    <b>.begin</b> and <b>.end</b>, respectively.
    In our example export filter, these could look like the
    following:</p>

    <p><i>html.begin.layout</i>:<br />
    <code>&lt;!DOCTYPE html&gt;<br/>&lt;html&gt;<br /> &lt;body style="color:#275856; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;</code>
    </p>

    <p><i>html.end.layout</i>:<br />
    <code>&lt;/body&gt;<br />&lt;/html&gt;</code></p>

    <p>The file <i>html.layout</i> provides the <i>default</i>
    template for exporting one single entry. If you want to use
    different templates for different entry types, you can do this
    by adding entry-specific <b>.layout</b> files. These must also
    reside in the same directory as the main layout file, and are
    named by inserting <b>.entrytype</b> into the name of the main
    layout file. The entry type name must be in all lowercase. In
    our example, we might want to add a template for book entries,
    and this would go into the file <i>html.book.layout</i>. For a
    PhD thesis we would add the file <i>html.phdthesis.layout</i>,
    and so on. These files are similar to the default layout file,
    except that they will only be used for entries of the matching
    type. Note that the default file can easily be made general
    enough to cover most entry types in most export filters.</p>

    <h3>The layout file format</h3>

    <p>Layout files are created using a
    simple markup format where commands are identified by a
    preceding backslash. All text not identified as part of a
    command will be copied verbatim to the output file.</p>

    <h3>Field commands</h3>

    <p>An arbitrary word preceded by a backslash, e.g.
    <code>\author</code>, <code>\editor</code>, <code>\title</code>
    or <code>\year</code>, will be interpreted as a reference to
    the corresponding field, which will be copied directly to the
    output.</p>

    <h3>Field formatters</h3>

    <p>Often there will be a need for some preprocessing of the
    field contents before output. This is done using a <i>field
    formatter</i> - a java class containing a single method that
    manipulates the contents of a field.</p>

    <p>A formatter is used by inserting the <code>\format</code>
    command followed by the formatter name in square braces, and
    the field command in curly braces, e.g.:</p>

    <p><code>\format[ToLowerCase]{\author}</code></p>

    <p>You can also specify multiple formatters separated by
    commas. These will be called sequentially, from left to right,
    e.g.</p>

    <p><code>\format[ToLowerCase,HTMLChars]{\author}</code></p>

    <p>will cause the formatter <b>ToLowerCase</b> to be called
    first, and then <b>HTMLChars</b> will be called to format the
    result. You can list an arbitrary number of formatters in this
    way.</p>

    <p>The argument to the formatters, withing the curly braces,
    does not have to be a field command. Instead, you can insert
    normal text, which will then be passed to the formatters
    instead of the contents of any field. This can be useful for
    some fomatters, e.g. the CurrentDate formatter (described
    below).</p>

    <p>Some formatters take an extra argument, given in parentheses
    immediately after the formatter name. The argument can be enclosed
    in quotes, which is necessary if it includes the parenthesis characters.
    For instance, <code>\format[Replace("\s,_")]{\journal}</code> calls
    the <b>Replace</b> formatter with the argument <b>\s,_</b> (which results
    in the "journal" field after replacing all whitespace by underscores).
    </p>

    <p>See below for a list of built-in export formatters.</p>

    <h3>Conditional output</h3>

    <p>Some static output might only make
    sense if a specific field is set. For instance, say we want to
    follow the editor names with the text <code>(Ed.)</code>. This
    can be done with the following text:</p>

    <p><code>\format[HTMLChars,AuthorFirstFirst]{\editor}
    (Ed.)</code></p>

    <p>However, if the <code>editor</code> field has not been set -
    it might not even make sense for the entry being exported - the
    <code>(Ed.)</code> would be left hanging. This can be prevented
    by instead using the <code>\begin</code> and <code>\end</code>
    commands:</p>

    <p><code>\begin{editor}<br />
    \format[HTMLChars,AuthorFirstFirst]{\editor} (Ed.)<br />
     \end{editor}</code></p>

    <p>The <code>\begin</code> and <code>\end</code> commands make
    sure the text in between is printed if and only if the field
    referred in the curly braces is defined for the entry being
    exported.</p>

    <p>A conditional block can also be dependent on more than one field, and the content is only printed when simple boolean conditions are satisfied. Two boolean operator are provided:</p>
    <ul>
	<li>AND operator : <code>&amp;</code>, <code>&amp;&amp;</code></li>
	<li>OR operator : <code>|</code>, <code>||</code></li>
    </ul>
    <p>To output text only if both <code>year</code> and <code>month</code> are set, use a block like the following:<br/><br/> <code>\begin{year&amp;&amp;month}Month: \format[HTMLChars]{\month}\end{year&amp;&amp;month}</code><br/><br/>which will print "Month: " plus the contents of the <code>month</code> field, but only if also the <code>year</code> field is defined.</p>

    <p><b>Note:</b> Use of the <code>\begin</code> and
    <code>\end</code> commands is a key to creating layout files
    that work well with a variety of entry types.</p>

    <h3>Grouped output</h3>

    <p>If you wish to separate your entries
    into groups based on a certain field, use the grouped output
    commands. Grouped output is very similar to conditional output,
    except that the text in between is printed only if the field
    referred in the curly braces has changed value.</p>

    <p>For example, let's assume I wish to group by keyword. Before
    exporting the file, make sure you have sorted your entries
    based on keyword. Now use the following commands to group by
    keyword:</p>

    <p><code>\begingroup{keywords}New Category:
    \format[HTMLChars]{\keywords}<br />
     \endgroup{keywords}</code></p>

    <h2>Sharing your work</h2>

    <p>With external layout files, it's
    fairly simple to share custom export formats between users. If
    you write an export filter for a format not supported by
    JabRef, or an improvement over an existing one, we encourage
    you to post your work on our SourceForge.net page. The same
    goes for formatter classes that you write. We'd be happy to
    distribute a collection of submitted layout files, or to add to
    the selection of standard export filters and formatters.</p>

    <p>Starting with JabRef 2.4 you can also package your 
	ExportFormat or LayoutFormatter as a plug-in. If you do so,
	you can provide a single zip-file to other user to make use
	of your ExportFormat. For an example download the JabRef
	source release and have a look at the directory
	<code>src/resources/plugins/</code>. Don't hesitate to stop by the
	forums on Sourceforge, since we don't have extensive documentation, yet.</p>


    <h2>Built-in export formatters</h2>

    <p>JabRef provides the following set of formatters:</p>

    <ul>
        <li><code>Authors</code> : this formatter provides formatting options for the author and editor fields; for detailed information, see below. It deprecates a range of dedicated formatters provided in versions of JabRef prior to 2.7.</li>

		<li><code>CreateBibORDFAuthors</code> : formats authors for according to the requirements of the Bibliographic Ontology (bibo).</li>

        <li><code>CreateDocBookAuthors</code> : formats the author
        field in DocBook style.</li>

        <li><code>CreateDocBookEditors</code> : formats the editor field in DocBook style. </li>

        <li><code>CurrentDate</code> : outputs the current date.
        With no argument, this formatter outputs the current date
        and time in the format "yyyy.MM.dd hh:mm:ss z" (date, time
        and time zone). By giving a different format string as
        argument, the date format can be customized. E.g.
        <code>\format[CurrentDate]{yyyy.MM.dd}</code> will give the
        date only, e.g. 2005.11.30.</li>

        <li><code>Default</code> : takes a single argument, which serves as a default value.
        If the string to format is non-empty, it is output without changes. If it is empty,
        the default value is output. For instance, <code>\format[Default(unknown)]{\year}</code>
        will output the entry's year if set, and "unknown" if no year is set.</li>
	
        <li><code>DOIStrip</code> : strips any prefixes from the DOI string.</li>
        <li><code>DOICheck</code> : provides the full url for a DOI link.</li>

        <li><code>FileLink(filetype)</code> : if no argument is given, this formatter outputs
        the first external file link encoded in the field. To work, the formatter must
        be supplied with the contents of the "file" field.
        <p>This formatter takes the name of an external file type as an optional argument,
        specified in parentheses after the formatter name. For instance,
        <code>\format[FileLink(pdf)]{\file}</code> specifies <code>pdf</code> as an
        argument. When an argument is given, the formatter selects the first file
        link of the specified type. In the example, the path to the first PDF link will
        be output.</p></li>

        <li><code>FirstPage</code> : returns the first page from the "pages" field, if set.
            For instance, if the pages field is set to "345-360" or "345--360",
            this formatter will return "345".</li>
            
        <li><code>FormatChars</code> : This formatter converts LaTeX character sequences 
        their equicalent unicode characters and removes other LaTeX commands without
        handling them.</li>

        <li><code>FormatPagesForHTML</code> : replaces "--" with "-".</li>

        <li><code>FormatPagesForXML</code> : replaces "--" with an XML en-dash.</li>

        <li><code>GetOpenOfficeType</code> : returns the number used by the OpenOffice.org
        bibliography system (versions 1.x and 2.x) to denote the type of this entry.</li>

        <li><code>HTMLChars</code> : replaces TeX-specific special
        characters (e.g. {\^a} or {\"{o}}) with their HTML
        representations, and translates LaTeX commands \emph, \textit,
        \textbf into HTML equivalents.</li>

        <li><code>HTMLParagraphs</code> : interprets two
        consecutive newlines (e.g. \n \n) as the beginning of a new
        paragraph and creates paragraph-html-tags accordingly.</li>

        <li><code>IfPlural</code> : outputs its first argument if the input field looks
        like an author list with two or more names, or its second argument otherwise.
        E.g. <code>\format[IfPlural(Eds.,Ed.)]{\editor}</code> will output "Eds." if there
        is more than one editor, and "Ed." if there is only one.</li>
        
        <li><code>JournalAbbreviator</code> : The given input text is abbreviated according to the journal abbreviation lists.
		If no abbreviation for input is found (e.g. not in list or already abbreviated), the input will be returned unmodified.
		For instance, when using <code>\format[JournalAbbreviator]{\journal}</code>, 
		"Physical Review Letters" gets "Phys. Rev. Lett." </li>

        <li><code>LastPage</code> : returns the last page from the "pages" field, if set.
            For instance, if the pages field is set to "345-360" or "345--360",
            this formatter will return "360".</li>
            
        <li><code>NoSpaceBetweenAbbreviations</code> :  LayoutFormatter that removes
        the space between abbreviated First names. Example: J. R. R. Tolkien becomes J.R.R. Tolkien.</li>
        
        <li><code>NotFoundFormatter</code> : Formatter used to signal that a formatter hasn't been found.
        This can be used for graceful degradation if a layout uses an undefined format.</li>
 
        <li><code>Number</code> : outputs the 1-based sequence number of the current entry in the
        current export. This formatter can be used to make a numbered list of entries. The
        sequence number depends on the current entry's place in the current sort order, not on
        the number of calls to this formatter.</li>

        <li><code>RemoveBrackets</code> : removes all curly brackets "{" or "}".</li>

        <li><code>RemoveBracketsAddComma</code> : removes all curly brackets "{" or "}". The closing curly bracket
        is replaced by a comma.</li>

        <li><code>RemoveLatexCommands</code> : removes LaTeX
        commands like <code>\em</code>, <code>\textbf</code>, etc.
        If used together with <code>HTMLChars</code> or
        <code>XMLChars</code>, this formatter should be called
        last.</li>

        <li><code>RemoveTilde</code> : replaces the tilde character
        used in LaTeX as a non-breakable space by a regular space.
        Useful in combination with the <a href="#NameFormatter">NameFormatter</a> discussed in
        the next section.</li>

        <li><code>RemoveWhitespace</code> : removes all whitespace characters.</li>

        <li><code>Replace(regexp,replacewith)</code> : does a regular expression replacement.
        To use this formatter, a two-part argument must be given. The parts are
        separated by a comma. To indicate the comma character, use an escape
        sequence: \,<br/>&nbsp;<br/>
        The first part is the regular expression to search for. Remember that any commma
        character must be preceded by a backslash, and consequently a literal backslash must
        be written as a pair of backslashes. A description of Java regular expressions can be
        found at:<br/>
        &nbsp;http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html
         <br/>&nbsp;<br/>
        The second part is the text to replace all matches with.</li>

		<li><code>RisAuthors</code> : to be documented.</li>
		<li><code>RisKeywords</code> : to be documented.</li>
		<li><code>RisMonth</code> : to be documented.</li>

        <li><code>RTFChars</code> : replaces TeX-specific special
        characters (e.g. {\^a} or {\"{o}}) with their RTF
        representations, and translates LaTeX commands \emph, \textit,
        \textbf into RTF equivalents.</li>

        <li><code>ToLowerCase</code> : turns all characters into
        lower case.</li>

        <li><code>ToUpperCase</code> : turns all characters into
        upper case.</li>

        <li><code>WrapContent</code> : This formatter outputs the input value after adding a
        prefix and a postfix, as long as the input value is non-empty. If the input value
        is empty, an empty string is output (the prefix and postfix are not output in this case).
        The formatter requires an argument containing the prefix and postix separated
        by a comma. To include the comma character in either, use an escape sequence
        (\,).</li>

        <li><code>WrapFileLinks</code> : See below.</li>

        <li><code>XMLChars</code> : replaces TeX-specific special
        characters (e.g. {\^a} or {\"{o}}) with their XML
        representations.</li>

    </ul>

<h3>The <code>Authors</code> formatter</h3>

<p>To accommodate for the numerous citation styles, the <code>Authors</code> formatter allows flexible control over the layout of the author list. The formatter takes a comma-separated list of options, by which the default values can be overridden. The following option/value pairs are currently available, where the default values are given in curly brackets.</p>
<dl>
<dt><code>AuthorSort = [ {FirstFirst} | LastFirst | LastFirstFirstFirst ]</code></dt>
<dd>specifies the order in which the author names are formatted.
	<ul>
		<li><code>FirstFirst</code> : first names are followed by the surname.</li>
		<li><code>LastFirst</code> : the authors' surnames are followed by their first names, separated by a comma.</li>		
		<li><code>LastFirstFirstFirst</code> : the first author is formatted as LastFirst, the subsequent authors as FirstFirst.</li>
	</ul>
</dd>

<dt><code>AuthorAbbr = [ FullName | LastName | {Initials} | InitialsNoSpace | FirstInitial | MiddleInitial ]</code></dt>
<dd>specifies how the author names are abbreviated.
	<ul>
		<li><code>FullName</code> : shows full author names; first names are not abbreviated.</li>
		<li><code>LastName</code> : show only surnames, first names are removed.</li> 
		<li><code>Initials</code> : all first names are abbreviated.</li> 
		<li><code>InitialsNospace</code> : as Initials, with any spaces between initials removed.</li>
		<li><code>FirstInitial</code> : only first initial is shown.</li> 
		<li><code>MiddleInitial</code> : first name is shown, but all middle names are abbreviated.</li>
	</ul>	
</dd>

<dt><code>AuthorPunc = [ {FullPunc} | NoPunc | NoComma | NoPeriod ]</code></dt>
<dd>specifies the punctuation used in the author list when <code>AuthorAbbr</code> is used
	<ul>
		<li><code>FullPunc</code> : no changes are made to punctuation.</li>
		<li><code>NoPunc</code> : all full stops and commas are removed from the author name.</li>
		<li><code>NoComma</code> : all commas are removed from the author name.</li>
		<li><code>NoPeriod</code> : all full stops are removed from the author name.</li>
	</ul>	
</dd>

<dt><code>AuthorSep = [ {Comma} | And | Colon | Semicolon | Sep=&lt;string&gt; ]</code></dt>
<dd>specifies the separator to be used between authors. Any separator can be specified, with the <code>Sep=&lt;string&gt;</code> option. Note that appropriate spaces need to be added around <code>string</code>.</dd> 

<dt><code>AuthorLastSep = [ Comma | {And} | Colon | Semicolon | Amp | Oxford | LastSep=&lt;string&gt; ]</code></dt>
<dd>specifies the last separator in the author list. Any separator can be specified, with the <code>LastSep=&lt;string&gt;</code> option. Note that appropriate spaces need to be added around <code>string</code>.</dd>

<dt><code>AuthorNumber = [ {inf} | &lt;integer&gt; ]</code></dt>
<dd>specifies the number of authors that are printed. If the number of authors exceeds the maximum specified, the authorlist is replaced by the first author (or any number specified by <code>AuthorNumberEtAl</code>), followed by <code>EtAlString</code>.</dd>

<dt><code>AuthorNumberEtAl = [ {1} | &lt;integer&gt; ]</code></dt>
<dd>specifies the number of authors that are printed if the total number of authors exceeds <code>AuthorNumber</code>.
This argument can only be given after <code>AuthorNumber</code> has already been given.</dd>

<dt><code>EtAlString = [ { et al.} | EtAl=&lt;string&gt; ]</code></dt>
<dd>specifies the string used to replace multiple authors. Any string can be given, using <code>EtAl=&lt;string&gt;</code></dd>

</dl>

<p>If an option is unspecified, the default value (shown in curly brackets above) is used. Therefore, only layout options that differ from the defaults need to be specified. The order in which the options are defined is (mostly) irrelevant. So, for example,</p>
<p><code>\format[Authors(Initials,Oxford)]{\author}</code></p>
<p>is equivalent to</p>
<p><code>\format[Authors(Oxford,Initials)]{\author}</code></p>
<p>As mentioned, the order in which the options are specified is irrelevant. There is one possibility for ambiguity, and that is if both <code>AuthorSep</code> and <code>AuthorLastSep</code> are given. In that case, the first applicable value encountered would be for <code>AuthorSep</code>, and the second for <code>AuthorLastSep</code>. It is good practise to specify both when changing the default, to avoid ambiguity.</p>

<h4>Examples</h4>
<p>Given the following authors, <i>"Joe James Doe and Mary Jane and Bruce Bar and Arthur Kay"</i> ,the <code>Authors</code> formatter will give the following results:</p>
<dl>
<dt><code>Authors()</code>, or equivalently, <code>Authors(FirstFirst,Initials,FullPunc,Comma,And,inf,EtAl= et al.)</code></dt>
<dd><pre>J. J. Doe, M. Jane, B. Bar and A. Kay</pre></dd>

<dt><code>Authors(LastFirstFirstFirst,MiddleInitial,Semicolon)</code></dt>
<dd><pre>Doe, Joe J.; Mary Jane; Bruce Bar and Arthur Kay</pre></dd>

<dt><code>Authors(LastFirst,InitialsNoSpace,NoPunc,Oxford)</code></dt>
<dd><pre>Doe JJ, Jane M, Bar B, and Kay A</pre></dd>

<dt><code>Authors(2,EtAl= and others)</code></dt>
<dd><pre>J. J. Doe and others</pre></dd>
</dl>
<p>Most commonly available citation formats should be possible with this formatter. For even more advanced options, consider using the Custom Formatters detailed below.</p>

<h3>The <code>WrapFileLinks</code> formatter</h3>

<p>This formatter iterates over all file links, or all file links of a specified type, outputting a format string given as the first argument. The format string can contain a number of escape sequences indicating file link information to be inserted into the string.</p>
<p>This formatter can take an optional second argument specifying the name of a file type. If specified, the iteration will only include those files with a file type matching the given name (case-insensitively). If specified as an empty argument, all file links will be included.</p>
<p> After the second argument, pairs of additional arguments can be added in order to specify regular expression replacements to be done upon the inserted link information before insertion into the output string. A non-paired argument will be ignored. In order to specify replacements without filtering on file types, use an empty second argument.</p>
<p>The escape sequences for embedding information are as follows:</p>
<ul>
	<li><code>\i</code> : This inserts the iteration index (starting from 1), and can be useful if the output list of files should be enumerated.</li>
	<li><code>\p</code> : This inserts the file path of the file link.</li>
	<li><code>\f</code> : This inserts the name of the file link's type.</li>
	<li><code>\x</code> : This inserts the file's extension, if any.</li>
	<li><code>\d</code> : This inserts the file link's description, if any.</li>
</ul>
<p>For instance, an entry could contain a file link to the file "/home/john/report.pdf" of the "PDF" type with description "John's final report". Using the WrapFileLinks formatter with the following argument:</p>
<p><code>\format[WrapFileLinks(\i. \d (\p))]{\file}</code></p>
<p>would give the following output:</p>
<pre>
    1. John's final report (/home/john/report.pdf)

</pre>
<p>If the entry contained a second file link to the file "/home/john/draft.txt" of the "Text file" type with description 'An early "draft"', the output would be as follows:</p>
<pre>
    1. John's final report (/home/john/report.pdf)
    2. An early "draft" (/home/john/draft.txt)

</pre>
<p>If the formatter was called with a second argument, the list would be filtered. For instance:</p>
<p><code>\format[WrapFileLinks(\i. \d (\p),,text file)]{\file}</code></p>
<p> would show only the text file:</p>
<pre>
    1. An early "draft" (/home/john/draft.txt)

</pre>
<p>If we wanted this output to be part of an XML styled output, the quotes in the file description could cause problems. Adding two additional arguments to translate the quotes into XML characters solves this:</p>
<p><code>\format[WrapFileLinks(\i. \d (\p),,text file,",&amp;quot;)]{\file}</code></p>
<p>would give the following output:</p>
<pre>
    1. An early &quot;draft&quot; (/home/john/draft.txt)

</pre>
<p>Additional pairs of replacements could be added.</p>


    <h3>Custom formatters</h3>
    <p>If none of the available formatters can do what you want to
    achieve, you can add your own by implementing the
    <code>net.sf.jabref.export.layout.LayoutFormatter</code>
    interface. If you insert your class into the
    <code>net.sf.jabref.export.layout.format</code> package, you
    can call the formatter by its class name only, like with the
    standard formatters. Otherwise, you must call the formatter by
    its fully qualified name (including package name). In any case,
    the formatter must be in your classpath when running
    JabRef.</p>

    <h2 id="NameFormatter">Using Custom Name Formatters</h2>

    <p>From JabRef 2.2, it is possible to define custom name
    formatters using the bibtex-sty-file syntax. This allows
    ultimate flexibility, but is a cumbersome to write</p>

    <p>You can define your own formatter in the preference tab
    "Name Formatter" using the following format and then use it
    with the name given to it as any other formatter</p>
    <code>&lt;case1&gt;@&lt;range11&gt;@&lt;format&gt;@&lt;range12&gt;@&lt;format&gt;@&lt;range13&gt;...@@<br />

     &lt;case2&gt;@&lt;range21&gt;@... and so on.</code>

    <p>This format first splits the task to format a list of author
    into cases depending on how many authors there are (this is
    since some formats differ depending on how many authors there
    are). Each individual case is separated by @@ and contains
    instructions on how to format each author in the case. These
    instructions are separated by a @.</p>

    <p>Cases are identified using integers (1, 2, 3, etc.) or the
    character * (matches any number of authors) and will tell the
    formatter to apply the following instructions if there are a
    number of less or equal of authors given.</p>

    <p>Ranges are either
    <code>&lt;integer&gt;..&lt;integer&gt;</code>,
    <code>&lt;integer&gt;</code> or the character <code>*</code>
    using a 1 based index for indexing authors from the given list
    of authors. Integer indexes can be negative to denote them to
    start from the end of the list where -1 is the last author.</p>

    <p>For instance with an authorlist of "Joe Doe and Mary Jane
    and Bruce Bar and Arthur Kay":</p>

    <ul>
        <li>1..3 will affect Joe, Mary and Bruce</li>

        <li>4..4 will affect Arthur</li>

        <li>* will affect all of them</li>

        <li>2..-1 will affect Mary, Bruce and Arthur</li>
    </ul>

    <p>The <code>&lt;format&gt;</code>-strings use the Bibtex
    formatter format:</p>

    <p>The four letters v, f, l, j indicate the name parts von,
    first, last, jr which are used within curly braces. A single
    letter v, f, l, j indicates that the name should be
    abbreviated. If one of these letters or letter pairs is
    encountered JabRef will output all the respective names
    (possibly abbreviated), but the whole expression in curly
    braces is only printed if the name part exists.</p>

    <p>For instance if the format is "{ll} {vv {von Part}} {ff}"
    and the names are "Mary Kay and John von Neumann", then JabRef
    will output "Kay Mary" (with two space between last and first)
    and "Neuman von von Part John".</p>

    <p>I give two examples but would rather point you to the bibtex
    documentation.</p>

    <p>Small example: <code>"{ll}, {f.}"</code> will turn
    <code>"Joe Doe"</code> into <code>"Doe, J."</code></p>

    <p>Large example:</p>

    <blockquote>
        <p>To turn:</p>

        <p><code>"Joe Doe and Mary Jane and Bruce Bar and Arthur
        Kay"</code></p>

        <p>into</p>

        <p><code>"Doe, J., Jane, M., Bar, B. and Kay,
        A."</code></p>

        <p>you would use</p>

        <p><code>1@*@{ll}, {f}.@@2@1@{ll}, {f}.@2@ and {ll},
        {f}.@@*@1..-3@{ll}, {f}., @-2@{ll}, {f}.@-1@ and {ll},
        {f}.</code></p>
    </blockquote>

    <p>If somebody would like to write a better tutorial about
    this: Write a mail to one of the JabRef mailinglists!</p>


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